Sign Up and Save

Thompson called the police and took the flier to the Patrol East Bureau, where she was told it qualified as free speech.

I’ve got a whole bouquet of hate right here

Patsy Thompson

“We are aware of these fliers,” said Officer Charley Davidson, a spokesman for the Wichita Police Department. “We are monitoring the situation. At this point, we don’t have any criminal activity.”

The fliers were left on the driveways of at least two blocks along Waverly, a lower-middle-class neighborhood southeast of Lincoln and Edgemoor.

Thompson said she got permission from the police to walk the neighborhood, picking up any fliers that hadn’t already been collected.

“I’ve got a whole bouquet of hate right here,” she said, holding up several unopened fliers.

Donna Dozier, Thompson’s sister, said she can’t understand why Waverly was targeted. The sisters live just a couple of houses apart.

“It’s very diverse,” she said of the neighborhood. “We have no trouble.

“That’s why we were shocked.”

The fliers make reference to the Black Lives Matter movement but no political races. Still, the sisters are convinced the heated presidential race has given people the courage to give voice to sentiments long kept silent.

“It scares me that something like that would happen,” said Dozier, who has lived in her house on Waverly for 50 years. “That’s terrible.”

The flier claims “We are in every state, you will not be alone anymore.”

According to information posted on the Southern Poverty Law Center website, however, the Loyal White Knights of the KKK have branches in 21 states around the country — but none in Kansas or Missouri.

The flier’s claims include saying “We are not a hate group or openly show hate” and “We are Christian based and uphold the Bible.

“We are the invisible empire, have been for 150 years.”

There have been no other reports of KKK promotional fliers being distributed elsewhere in the city, Davidson said.

Read Next

A Newton public schools USD 373 district spokeswoman said a bomb threat was found in a Newton High School classroom on Thursday, and a student was arrested by police on suspicion of making a criminal threat.